Originally, we were reporting on the tournament because it was a big deal.  Foothill would win after basically already crushing everyone in it.  Well, Foothill lost 4-3 to Newport setting up the intra-bay rivalry v CDM.  CDM wins that one 5-4.  So, this CIF season begins with intrigue.  The press is all over CDM goalie Kate Murphy’s play…both stories lead with her.
By the way, you think CDM-Newport is a rivalry. Check out CDM Coach Aaron Chaney’s quote: “It’s not about the tournament,” Chaney said. “It’s about beating Newport.”  Amen.  Thank you rivalries

OCRegister Article: Murphy leads CdM to title

Daily Pilot Article:Murphy leads CdM to win

Holiday Cup continues today, well, now actually. Some articles…you think its purposeful that the Daily Pilot can’t even put Newport and CDM in the same article?? They have separate articles on both from the same tournament. Anyway
Updates:

OCRegister Santa Margarita Update

Daily Pilot on CDM

Daily Pilot on Newport

I am not sure there are any surprises here as Hamilton is probably the best player in the country. (I said “probably” by the way– yes, Ben Hohl is right there).  What is surprising is this article itself.  Is it me or is it weird that the author is trying to spin red cards and the fact that Caleb was trying “not” to get ejected into a story on what a team player he is.  I don’t know Caleb -  I know he is an certified water polo star. I am also pretty sure the writer could have taken a different direction with his article.

Congrats to Caleb, you WILL see him on starring on the next level.

 LATimes article

The Bega in two places mystery has been solved–the SCU website has not been updated since last season when Johnny helped Wilbur & the women’s team.

Johnny Bega is confirmed the Assistant Women’s Coach at San Jose State.

So, we put up the assistant article….including in this post was a rant about assistant’s disappearing…One of our readers wrote back about ASSISTANT’S MULTIPLYING. John Bega is listed as an assistant women’s coach at San Jose State AND Santa Clara.
We are sure this is a typo but since we are NOT a reputable news source we allowed fun things like this out. Having no picture posted gives us hope that there are in fact two Johnny Bega’s out there…both coaching in the San Jose area.
Santa Clara Bio for “Johnny Bega”

San Jose State Bio for “Johnny Bega”

… on the hardwood, that is. Jayne Appel is a 6-4 freshman forward/center for the No. 14 Cardinal and was MVP of the McDonalds All-American game last spring.

The fun fact is that she played water polo for Carondelet, the sister school across the street from De La Salle in Concord. It was tough to defend Jayne, especially around the goal - I even saw a couple of alley-oop type plays off of corner throws - a long arm just popped out of the crowd to redirect the ball. It was great to see her play polo through her senior year despite being one of the top basketball recruits in the nation.

By the way, Jayne helped Stanford start the Pac-10 season 2-0 with a road sweep of the SC and UCLA - she played a bit vs SC then had 11pts & 5 boards (5/6 from the floor) against the Bruins in 15 min of run.

Jayne Appel bio (note hobbies = water polo)

I think this is interesting, you may not. I was tallying Cal’s NCAA championships totals and figured I would publish. Mind you, this is my blog and if my math is off, I apologize.

Close enough is good enough. Anyway, it was fun…
Standings for Men’s NCAA Championships Won:

Cal -12
Stan - 10
UCLA - 8
Irvine - 3
USC - 3
Pepperdine - 1
UCSB - 1
Women’s Water Polo NCAA Championships Standings:

UCLA - 4
Stanford - 1
USC - 1

NCAA Championships History

Association of Water Polo Coach’s chose USC’s Juan Delgadillo as their Player of the Year. SC and Cal had a boat-load of guys on the team. Actually, CAL may have had more..
Anyway, congrats to Juan…SC Article
CAL Article too, they had a ton.

Jamey Wright , head coach at UCDavis, named two assistant coaches:

Matt Jones — a former conference-champion swimmer at Davis. He is the top assistant.

Tiffany Hodgens — a six-time water polo All-American and one of the most famous women’s players in Davis history. She will serve as the volunteer assistant.

I think my next blog entry will be on longest tenured assistant coaches. While I love seeing ex-players go into coaching, I am equally discouraged when they leave and by leave I mean –disappear from the game. More on this later as the importance of staff continuity is a big deal…just look at the major sports like football and basketball where some people believe you can judge a team’s success by assistants.

By the way, this rant has nothing to do with Davis as Jon Burke left as the asst to stay in coaching at Sacred Heart Prep. He did not disappear.

The Southern California girls High School scene is typically defined by a trio of tournaments bringing the best teams from San Diego up to Santa Barbara together, these are: The Holiday Cup, Irvine Tourney, and Santa Barbara. The first of these critical tournaments starts 12/29 with the Holiday Cup at CDM/Newport.

For those of you out of the loop, the girls High Schools from Clovis - North play in the Fall. CCS had the chance to change that, but voted against it. (no comment) .

This is a good tournament and should set the tone for the winter. (yes, there are crucial teams missing)

Holiday Cup Schedule 12-29 and 12/30

When everyone gets back from new years…Women’s Collegiate and Socal Girls HS kicks off.

Interesting Tidbits:

Bishops School (San Diego) going for their 4 title in a row:Article on Sarah Van Norman (SC-bound) and Chelsea Smith-Carmichael (Stanford-bound) hoping to get 4 in a row at Bishop’s

Foothill (Tustin/Orange County) looks dominating.  (BTW, this opinion not derived from this article but from their Division I Collegiate Starting lineup:

Foothill sans Noel Umphrey (UCLA) crushing Newport and Santa Margarita before the break

Newport beat CDM in a close one:

Newport 6-5 over CDM